Discovering the Marche

     From Urbino, we can head south to visit well-known cities of the Marche such as Fabriano and Macerata, another university city in the Marche and known for its famous Sferisterio (Spheristerion) arena built for the game of handball, but now better known for music concerts and, in particular, for opera.  It is impossible not to make a stop in Genga in order to visit the Grotta di Frasassi – one of the most interesting and famous Karst formations in Italy.

Montefeltro

     Between the valleys of the Foglia River and the Marecchia River, along the border where the Marche, Toscana, and Emilia Romagna meet, a land of culture and history, which still holds on to constant and significant memories of its past in the many fortified hamlets, rises up from the spurs of the limestone rocks that characterize this rough and fascinating area.

     From Urbino, we can set off for Montefeltro, running into Sassocorvaro during the first half of the trip where we can visit the Ubaldinesca Fortress, also built by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, with its singular layout in the form of a ship, or we can continue on toward Macerate Feltria where we find the characteristic hamlet and 19^th century parish church of San Michele Arcangelo.

     After Macerate Feltria, comes the hamlet of Carpegna which is worth a visit for its majestic Palazzo Carpegna.  Continuing on, we encounter the towns of Pennabili, Sant’Agata Feltria, and Novafeltria until we reach the striking castle of San Leo, a hamlet inserted into a limestone mass which, already from a distance, elicits the sensation of invincibility.  It is certainly worth a visit.

Urbino

     “On the slopes of the Apennine Mountains, almost in the middle of Italy toward the Adriatic Sea, is located, as everyone knows, the little city of Urbino”, so wrote Baldassarre Castiglione in “Il libro del Cortigiano” (“The Book of the Courtier”).

     Federico da Montefeltro succeeded in creating a sort of ideal city and art capital able to compete, as far as monuments and masterpieces were concerned, with the much larger cities of Venice, Florence, and Rome.  In fact, it is during his time as Duke (1442-1482) that the fame of the city reached national and European fruition.

     The 1400’s was a golden period for Urbino, which began with a cycle of Gothic frescos in the Oratorio di San Giovanni (Saint John’s Oratory) thanks to Eugenio IV and ended with the construction of the Palazzo Ducale during the Renaissance by Luciano Laurana and Francesco di Giorgio Martini.

     In the 1500’s, with Guidobaldo (son of Federico) at the helm, the city of Montefeltro was the setting for instituting the University as a School for Doctors, for administrating justice, and for the birth of two major exponents of Italian art:  Raphael and Bramante.

     After the death of Guidobaldo, the dukedom passed to his nephew Francesco Maria I from the Della Rovere family, the court was moved to Pesaro, and so began the decline of Urbino.  

     We witness a weak revival in the 1700’s with the reconstruction of secular palaces by the Albani family, who had sent a pope to Rome.